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Show Utah's Fiscal Position Excellent But Hew Spending Must be Curbed Although Utah attained an enviable position among the states by achieving a budgetary budget-ary surplus this year and a balanced budget for next year with no increase in taxes, a note of caution is sounded by Utah Foundation, the private-research private-research orgainzation. ' The Foundation warns that when money appears plentiful spending pressures become heavy and are much more difficult to hold in check than when finances are obviously strained. Programs launched in times of short-term prosperity pros-perity usually are continued and grow in the future. When the fiscal, situation again tightens, the expended cost of such new programs could constitute a severe burden oh the economy. According to the study, an important factor in Utah's present excellent fiscal condition con-dition has been the leveling off in school enrollments during dur-ing recent years. Education accounts for approximately SO per cent of all state and local government expenditures expenditur-es in Utah and is equal to nearly 11 per cent of total personal income in the state. The report points put, however, how-ever, that a recent upturn in the state's rate along, with a reversal of the out-migration pattern that prevailed in the middle and late 1960's indicates indi-cates that school enrollments in Utah probably will resume an upward trend during the latter part of the 1970's. Thus there is the probability that Utah may experience another fiscal squeeze in the Second half of the 1970 decade. Foundation analysts in reviewing re-viewing major Utah developments develop-ments of the past year note that some critical problems occurred in public welfare during 1970. These were met by emergency legislative action ac-tion in 1971 and increased regular appropriations by the 1971 Legislature. In recent months, however, the caseload case-load in some critical welfare categories leveled off, and it appeared at year's end that the 1971-72 appropriation might remain unspent, on June 30, 1972, at the close of the present fiscal period. Inflation continued as a major problem in the ec9no-my ec9no-my during 1971, but there were some definite signs that this has been brought under control by the latter part of 1971. The Foundation study shows that the consumers price index rose by nearly 6 per cent in 1970 and at an annual rate of more than 4 percent during the first six months of 1971. Between June and November of 1971, however, the . annual rate of increase in the consumers price index amounted to only about 2.2 per cent. Utah's relative economic position among the fifty sta- tes which had declined badly during the latter portion of the 1960 decade appeared to be improving slightly in 1970 and 1971. Foundation analysts observe that Utah's per capita cap-ita income in 1962 was less than 9 per cent below the U. S. average. By 1969 it had fallen to almost 20 per cent under the average for the nation. The Utah situation improved in 1970 and appeared appear-ed to be holding up in 1971. Another development noted in the Foundation year-end review was the replacement of teacher shortages in Utah with teacher surpluses. The study points out that many recent teacher graduates in Utah have been unable to find teaching positions in the state. |
